


Ships That Pass In The Night Crash In The Day

by Warp5Complex_Archivist



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-15
Updated: 2006-03-15
Packaged: 2018-08-16 06:13:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8090584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warp5Complex_Archivist/pseuds/Warp5Complex_Archivist
Summary: Hayes and Ren get to know each other. Hayes/f. Canon AU, 3.08 "Twilight." (08/28/2004)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Kylie Lee, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Warp 5 Complex](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Warp_5_Complex), the software of which ceased to be maintained and created a security hazard. To make future maintenance and archive growth easier, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but I may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Warp 5 Complex collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Warp5Complex).

  
Author's notes: Coauthored with Robert Kennedy Drake and Jennifer Slusher.  
  
This is set on the timeline based on the episode 3.08 "Twilight" where Earth was destroyed. The survivors who settled on the world of Ceti Alpha 5 have renamed it Gaia. With the Enterprise never encountering the Weapon or Hoshi being kidnapped. The character of Major Hayes did not die. He went onto a long career in the MACOs and here, has just been appointed Governor of New Earth Colony, Gaia.  


* * *

It was a simple assembly, for all MACOs and most politicians and officials on Gaia. Their new Governor. Gabriel was slightly overwhelmed when they gave him the full understanding of responsibility with his new position. A figurehead. He thought he was needed in more direct charge of MACOs planet side, as well as being that military figurehead with the title Governor. Oh no. Langley and Hayes' new secretary had filled him in to how far his hand stretched into the daily business of Gaia. In scanning over the contact list, it would seem he was hardly here for military at all. Definitely a political job that Archer failed to know or say.

He had waited in the back, preferring to make his entrance as the military leaders of the past had done. Most of the MACOs were aware of him, if not having ever met him face to face. Being on board NX-01 while fighting the Xindi tended to keep his face unknown save the few visits he made planet side. His name, however, had become legendary. Colonel Gabriel Loman Hayes. The Iron Colonel. The Straight-laced Bastard. Rule and Regulation Hayes. Never did he once try and lessen the hard-ass reputation he had. If anything, he encouraged it and did not dispute a single rumor. He knew how leadership was best respected and to Colonel Hayes the men were more apt to jump to your order and not question if they knew you would put up with zero percent of bullshit. To date, it had served Gabe well.

Someone up front gave a quick introduction speech in regards to his career, practically listing off every last achievement he had from the purple hearts down to the wars he had fought in. This part Gabriel could have done without, but stood in the back. Waiting. There was no clapping when he was finally introduced and set out right boot forward down the long path with the two Lieutenants at his heals. Escorts to the Colonel who stayed just behind him on a diagonally as he walked. The two men keeping his quick pace. Salutes from all men went up at the announcement of the Colonel and stoically the Iron Colonel took to the front podium and began to sternly speak.

* * *

The squad was excited, hell the entire MACO contingent presently stated on Gaia was fucking doing cartwheels this morning. Assembled on the field, surrounding by both Fleet and MACO personnel, Ren had no idea there was going to be this much fanfare to welcome one man. While she could understand the sentiment running rife through the rest of her comrades, she would rather have been somewhere else than wait for some stuff shirt to start speaking. Okay, she was being harsh, it was not some stuff shirt, it was Hayes. Colonel Hayes, whose picture hung in the MACO halls in full dress uniform, apparently commissioned some year ago. The man was almost canonized by some of the maggots, the paragon to which they all should aspire.

Whatever.

Lorio and Anderson were staring ahead as the man finally made his appearance, youthful faces filled with anticipation and eagerness marking their expressions. Christ, he was just a man. Gunny stood next to her, similarly transfixed but fortunately not so mesmerized. Thank Christ for one man who was not behaving like a drooling idiot. She saw Captain Merrick on the podium and smiled, the man hated dress uniform. Ren barely paid attention to the narration of Hayes's formidable experience, letting the voice disintegrate into a drone. Hell she and every MACO on Gaia had this drilled into them for years. There was hardly a reason to rehash this. She had been so busy thinking that when the burst of applause broke out as Hayes' debut, she hurried to catch up and managed to clap only a few times before she face front.

And almost fainted where she was standing.

You have got to be fucking kidding.

For a moment, she stood there, feeling the blood drain from her face, her breath suddenly shorten. Her heart started pounding, not racing, POUNDING. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Oh Jesus...Hayes, that was not Hayes. That couldn't be Hayes. She stared, eyes wide as saucers at the man at the podium, the man she now realised was so familiar whom she had bedded not more than two nights ago. The man who was known to all as Colonel Gabriel Loman Hayes but to her was something entirely different, less formal.

Gabe.

* * *

The men looked to be in decent formation and had this been a proper inspection, Gabriel would have looked at them from the wrinkles in their uniforms to seeing his image in their spit-shine boots. This was not his first, official Colonel inspection of the troops, mere an introduction assembly, he reminded himself and resisted the urge to play MACO leader instead of this Governor. Fleet, MACOs and civilian alike were before him and while used to addressing different groups of people, never was it being the leader of them all. He had prepared himself as best as possible and spoke sternly to them all. Never letting up as he discussed the agenda left by Langley, the position of the MACOs and Fleet with the merger and how in the weeks to come, he would be certain to quickly fill Governor Langley's shoes and continue to move them forward to progress.

Towards the end, he relaxed now that the majority of his speech was over and allowed himself to scan over the MACOs in the front three rows. Most of the faces never looked familiar to him, as they were mostly privates. Captain Merrick had positioned himself on the end after that introduction speech and Gabriel was about to make eye contact with the man when a Corporal caught his eye. He kept talking, his sweeping gaze stopping for a moment and then a stern look of recognition flashed over his face. For a second he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes falling on a female face that looked entirely too familiar for his comfort level. In fact, alarms began in his well-trained head so forcing his gaze back to the crowd, picking up exactly where he paused; Colonel Hayes continued and was now quick to wrap up his speech.

His mind had quickly gone out of focus for the young woman he had picked up a few nights ago at Outpost, her name Ren, appeared to either have a twin, or was one of his goddamn MACOs.

* * *

No, no, no, this was not happening.

That was not him up there. Denial worked for about as long as it took for her to notice his gaze sweeping over all of them before coming to a dead halt when he saw her. It was perhaps a second, no more that his gaze lingered on her but Ren knew he had just realised who she was too. Expertly he looked away, leaving Ren almost weak at the knees. She stared at him because she was allowed to do so, because it wouldn't be unseemly for her do it since everyone else had their gaze fixed on the same point, thinking that he looked entirely different from Gabe. Gabe, with whom she had shared one of the most passionate if not searing nights of pleasure in recent memory in that room at the Outpost. Oh God, how this could happen? She thought to herself, a thousand emotions running through her. She hadn't noticed that to everyone else paying attention, she had suddenly turned pale.

A noise beside him made Derick glance at Ren, though he couldn't have put a name on the sound. Whatever it had been, had been ethereal yet solid enough to distract his attention from a certain Major in full dress uniform. "Corporal?" Derick replied in a quiet voice, his movements those of someone accustomed to not drawing attention to himself.

"Yes Sir," she answered, barely audible. Good god, that was Hayes up there. Colonel Gabriel Loman Fucking Hayes. Oh Jesus, she was going to be a civilian by nightfall.

Derick glanced up at the podium again and back to Ren. She looked like she was going to pass out any minute...and he knew for a fact it wasn't the weather or the standing that was doing it. "You alright?" he returned quietly.

"Yeah," she said in a strained breath. "Just dandy."

God, Hayes...Gabe...she should have fucking seen it. Gabe...Gabriel....

"You sure?" Derick replied, focusing all of his attention on her. "You want to sit down?" he said, indicating the seats placed out for VIP's.

"No!" She almost hissed at him because that would call more attention to herself than she already did. He would see! "I'm fine Gunny," she responded a moment later, remembering who she was talking to.

"Alright..." Derick said apologetically, to placate her. "Just try to let me know before you pass out on me." He flashed her a grin before going eyes front again. Eyes on Sloane...ahem. The Major and the Colonel. His uniform was itching at his neck but Derick ignored it.

"No problem," she said continuing to stare, thinking that she needed to throw up. "Everything's nominal...."

"Alright...all green, I can handle that." Actually, it was Ren that was looking decidedly green against the uniform. Derick gave her one last critical look, and turned back, keeping half his attention on her and the other half on Major McRae...the ceremony.

When the speech was over, Gabriel was quick to dismount the stage in his every so quick manner. Two LTs behind him. Her location was near pin pointed by his sharp eye and as he hoofed it down the steps towards the aisle, his stern gaze was straight ahead. Straight ahead except for when he passed her row, and his hazel eyes darted quickly to look at her. Get a closer look to be certain that the nightmare beginning in his head was for real.

* * *

Ren held her breath when she saw him coming this way, he couldn't call her out here, he wouldn't, It wouldn't just be her neck on the block but his too. However, she rationalized, he was the fucking Governor of Gaia. They may be able to sweep this under the carpet for him but she was just a corporal, she was expendable and to save him embarrassment, they would wash her out quicker than it took for the ink to dry on her discharge papers. Ren held her breath as he came towards her and she was certain it was because he wanted a closer look, he wanted to make sure. She recognized the look in his eye in that brief moment of contact—disbelief and recognition.

Worked out my ass, Ren thought of all the things she said to him, good god the things she did to him. How the hell could she have known?

Giving nothing to the girl, Colonel Hayes quickly turned his gaze back face front. Deadpan looking not please or enraged but worn in the same manner as he had addressed the assembly. Inside, Gabriel was dying. What were the goddamn chances of him wandering the party streets and running into one girl that was a Corporal? He'd seen it in her eyes too. That look of panic. She had no twin and the woman he had, well to bluntly put it, fucked the other night was one of his own men. His men. Not the Governor's men, but a MACO. The one line he had never crossed despite the wanting and yearning with Sloane. He felt his throat become dry as he made it down the end aisle and immediately crawled into the back of the waiting hovercar. "Carry on Corporal." He told the driver.

If he was going to break his own rule, he should have fucking done it with McRae years ago.

The driver tried to make small talk with the Colonel, but Gabriel was too wrapped up in this new drama of his life. He could have seen the Gunny, he decided, and was grateful he did not, but finding out about this girl equally sent him in a downward spiral tailspin. The driver fell back into obedient silence, and Hayes stared out the open window and desperately tried to come up with some rational plan.

* * *

When she saw him go, Ren was still trapped in stun disbelief. He had not said anything, he had barely reacted and so perhaps there was a chance to salvage this. Maybe he didn't want it out any more than she did but they had gone to the Outpost, people had seen them together. He had rented a fucking room. She had told him to get over it, whatever it was. She had told Gabriel Loman Hayes to get over it, the Iron Colonel. Oh Christ, she was worse than mortified. She was simply numb. What to do? What to do? This level of panic had not gripped her since before the MACOs when she was Renee, stupid and pregnant. No, no, she was going to think her way out of it this!

She he to talk to him. Somehow, she had to talk to him to figure this out.

Like how Ren? Turn up at his office. Excuse me can I see Governor Hayes? Oh I'm sure he'd see me, I gave him a blowjob two nights ago.

The Outpost, maybe he'd be at the Outpost. It was a slim chance. No one had known them there night; it was possible they might not know this time. Ren knew there was no reason to believe that he would be there. After what happened today, he would most likely be running in the opposite direction.

It was a scant hope at best but she had to take it, both their careers rode on this.


End file.
